Hey there family and friends! We have moved yet again. I know, nothing new, right? Well, we are settling into our apartment here in Arizona and preparing for a new Happy Hearts Homeschool year, which officially kicks off next Monday. :)

We took our time driving here. We spent four days altogether. We spent the first night at David's mom's where we had a nice visit. Funny story: a "huge" spider hitched a ride with us from our house and gave Marcus and Marissa quite the fright when they discovered him! We had to pull off the freeway and stop the car at a gas station so the kids could be rescued!

We had a blast on our drive here, though. After visiting Grandma, I did a little photo shoot in front of the beautiful Manti temple.

And then David surprised us by taking us through Zion's National Park. We even spent the night at a lodge in Springdale and the following morning we took the park's shuttle bus where we got off at the last stop on the loop and let the kids…

With public schools here back in session today, I woke up feeling gratitude for the blessings of homeschooling. First off, even though we combine our homeschooling with distance-education through Liahona Academy, I am thankful that Marcus and Marissa's online classes don't start up until August 31st. With our move to Arizona this very weekend, that gives us all of next week to unpack, settle in, and organize our homeschool.

I purchased these containers to store each student's school supplies (everything, but their text books) in one place. These will fit nicely in the back of my car for our move and will be easy for the kids to tote around the apartment.

Second, I am thankful for the freedom to homeschool and for the freedoms homeschooling gives us. I love having Marissa and Marcus home with me every day. I love that time with them. I love sharing our days together. I love being on OUR schedule, waking up when we choose to, not when we have to, and changing subjects only …

Today in Sacrament meeting (the family hour of my church), a beautiful return-sister-missionary spoke and shared some of her experiences serving the Lord in Japan. She spoke of three Christ-like attributes (charity and love, knowledge, and humility) that she felt prompted to focus on throughout her mission. These attributes came from a list out of the Preach My Gospel manual. Here is the complete list of Christ-like attributes:
Faith in Jesus Christ
Hope
Charity and Love
Virtue
Knowledge
Patience
Humility
Diligence
Obedience
She spoke of feeling an overwhelming love for a Japanese grandmother she met briefly. Even though this woman had no desire to hear the message of the restored gospel, she spoke lovingly of her children and grandchildren and this sister-missionary realized that listening is one way we show love for others. She then spoke of service and how serving others leads to loving them. She said something like, "before you share (the gospel), you mus…

People often ask us when we will put our kids back into public schools. While some homeschooling families do make that choice eventually, for us, sending our kids back to public school life is unthinkable. It is simply not an option.

We spent many years in the public school system before we began our homeschooling journey. In fact, my oldest son was public schooled all the way through his elementary, middle and high school years with the exception of two years in a Catholic private school in Peru. It was the same for my oldest daughter, until her last two high school years, which she happily completed as a homeschooler through Liahona Academy's unique distance program. I pulled her younger sister out of middle school to homeschool her. True story #1: My middle-school aged daughter was trapped with the same group of her peers for every single class for the entire year. They rotated subjects and teachers together and they ate lunch together. There was only one girl in her class who…

It was a beautiful Sabbath day here. I got so much out of church today. The theme in Sacrament meeting (the family meeting) was keeping the Sabbath day holy. Our ward (church congregation) here was one of those who recently made the change from holding Sacrament meeting last hour to holding Sacrament meeting first hour and the reverence in that meeting has been a night and day difference. It's wonderful to arrive early and walk in and immediately feel the spirit and hear the prelude music because everyone is being so quiet and respectful.

One of the stake counselors who spoke to us shared memories of his childhood and how his home did not have the gospel. In fact, there was alcoholism and divorce and it was pretty sad for him and his siblings. And then he said something that stood out to me: He said that he knows Heavenly Father still watched over his family and blessed him. I thought back to my childhood and I feel the same way. Even when my parents weren't making the best c…

It's August and that means the neighborhood kids are getting ready to go back to school. They're shopping with their moms for fall clothes and new school supplies. We are also preparing for a new Happy Hearts Homeschool year and we will be living in a new place! We're moving to Arizona in just a couple of weeks.

Marissa will be a senior this year. She will have her usual four online courses through the awesome Liahona Academy- English, science, history and math. Her classes are 45 minutes, except for math which is closer to 30 minutes. She will watch her classes live (with the option to watch them anytime of her choosing). She will study a few other subjects either online or through private classes as we schedule them, in order to get the rest of her credits for a high school diploma. She will also take her last year of Seminary online.

Marcus will be a seventh-grader. He will have two online classes through Liahona- history and science. I will teach him English, math, art,…